Monday, January 04, 2010

Kai's Thomas empire

Kai's train collection started with just Tidmoth Shed (train station with turn table) from the metal train set^. Then it exploded out of proportion when grandparents fuelled his Thomas obsession with even more trains and train sets.

Then it proceeded to the wooden set^. For the uninitiated, the wooden train tracks are not compatible with those for the metal train set. This meant that grandparents once again invested in another set of tracks AND trains when Kai showed his preference for the wooden trains.

Now, the Japanese has their own systems for Thomas paraphernalia that--not surprisingly--is not compatible with the wooden or the metal sets. I say "systems" because Tomy, the Japanese toy manufacturer, actually has different types of train set that are not compatible with one another!

So one day, grandma bought a small plastic train set^ for Kai and the rest, as the cliche goes, is history. That separate Tomy set is now an ecosystem of its own. As parents, we now have the heavy and back-breaking responsibility of fixing broken tracks and building new scenarios for Kai. The set you see here is now wound AROUND our sofa with the tracks leading to under the TV cabinet. (It's a cave, you see, claimed the father.)

While I'm glad I don't actually have to spend money on Kai's obsession, Terence and I pay in other ways. Guess who have to fix the complicated roller coaster set every time he tears it down, which he does a couple of times with glee everyday?

And oh, did I mention that there's also the toddler-sized track that can ferry a kid around? That one, I hide it in the store.